New Jersey as a colony and as a state, one of the original thirteen . tiveness to the measure by the legisla-tion of 1818, had become a dead letter. This wasowing to the attitude of many of the free-laborStates, which passed acts forbidding their magis-trates, under severe penalties, from assuming anypart in carrying the law into effect. New Jersey,however, took no action, as she deemed existentlegislation sufficient to cover all cases. The law of 1850 was originally a part of Claysfamous Omnibus Bill, and later passed as aseparate measure. In its terms, very brieflystated, the Fugitive Slave
New Jersey as a colony and as a state, one of the original thirteen . tiveness to the measure by the legisla-tion of 1818, had become a dead letter. This wasowing to the attitude of many of the free-laborStates, which passed acts forbidding their magis-trates, under severe penalties, from assuming anypart in carrying the law into effect. New Jersey,however, took no action, as she deemed existentlegislation sufficient to cover all cases. The law of 1850 was originally a part of Claysfamous Omnibus Bill, and later passed as aseparate measure. In its terms, very brieflystated, the Fugitive Slave Law provided thatUnited States commissioners could surrender a col-ored man or woman to anyone who claimed thenegro as a slave; that the negro could not givetestimony; commanded citizens to aid theslave hunters somewhat as a sheriffs possewould search for an escaped murderer; andsought to destroy the underground railroad byprescribing fine and punishment for those whoharbored runaway slaves or prevented their the people of the State of New Jersey this. 62 NEW JERSEY AS A OOL act was of more than passing interest. Five percent, of the total population of the State was ofnegro blood, free or slave. Many of these negroeswere resident in West Jersey, their homes beingupon the plantations or in the villages where theirancestors had formerly been slaves. It was intothis portion of the State that the escaping negrofrom the South, particularly from Maryland,Northern Virginia, and the Eastern Shore, en-tered upon his way to New England or out of Dover or Philadelphia, he caught hisfirst breath of personal freedom. In its defiance of the federal statute the opera-tion of the underground railroad was of courseunlawful. Yet among those members of the So-ciety of Friends who were most active in sendingthe slave to a place of security there was a specialconstruction placed upon William H. Sewardsdeclaration of the *higher law, a constructionthat negatived the show o
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